Make Way for Baby

Officially FULL TERM (37weeks), officially "any day now", NOT officially ready!

Its amazing how little I have done to get ready for this little guy in comparison to the first time around. Maybe its that my hands are full with grant, maybe its because I learned that as long as you have some diapers and a place to sleep you can fudge everything else for a while, but as of this past weekend I'm trying to "get ready" as best I can.

Here are pictures of the little guy's rocket room, just have to more some of the non-baby boxes out, finish a canvas quote/painting and mom is making some cute curtains. I sorted and washed Grant's hand-me-downs and then started getting a hospital bag together.

The most exciting baby purchase so far has been a new car seat/carrier cover. Since we got our stroller travel system with the intent of using it for more than one, and without knowing what Grant was, we got the neutral which happen to be black and purplish blue. Well thanks to an etsy seller it is now black and grey with a fun Michael Miller guitar fabric... it'll go great with our new stroller (Joovy Caboose) that has a platform on back for Grant to sit/stand on! Our orange -per Geoff's request- STEAL on ebay for about half of the retail price, brand new. woowhooo

Flying High

Grant and I had a special treat today as we trekked out to middle of nowhere Fort Bragg and watched Geoff jump out of a plane. Grant was VERY excited when I told him we were going to see Daddy jump out of a plane with a parachute and all day long everything that he played with needed "a parachute so it can fall" but it was so neat to see him in such awe of Geoff!

Here are my favorite before, during and after shots~ for the rest http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/Jump#

Friends and their Wee Ones

We were spoiled to get to spend a little time with friends and their kiddos over our vacay.
Nadia and Pat brought Natalie up to the lake so we could meet her, we're so happy that former Army friends call NE PA home so we can see them... (p.s. former Army, not former friends)

Then by co-inky-dink we stayed in Gaithersburg for a night to break up the drive home and Rory brought Dagny to meet Mom, Grant and I for dinner. We had a great time watching the kiddos not eat and spend their evening playing with eachother and running a muck!

Home Again Home Again Jigity Jig

We've said goodbye to this....

and are back home in Fayetteville!

We had a great, relaxing time but are happy to be home with Geoff and starting the last minute preperations for the family addition, (eviction date is Aug 12 if he doesn't come before then) so much to do, so little time!

http://picasaweb.google.com/laurabchilds/July4th#

PA Sightings

We're having a blast in PA, what I thought was going to be a cool down has just turned into an escape since we traded the 90 degree NC weather for, well, 90 degree PA weather but atleast we're missing out on all this 3 digit stuff thats been hitting the east coast.

Highlights from the weekend:

1) Daddy coming to the airport and having the weekend with him

2) Grant yelling FIREWORKS everytime he saw one go off.... 45 times in a row

3) Having a brown bear do a little dance by our car and then running across the street in front of us

4) Having Diane to commiserate with (she's due 2 weeks before me), seeing Marina Sophie and John was pretty cool too

5) Getting to meet Natalie and hang out with Nadia and Patrick, YAY for Army friends!

MIA @ LongPond

This is where we'll be for the next 2 weeks... Geoff comes for the long weekend tomorrow and we're excited to be doing a whole lot of NOTHING (well, you know besides skipping rocks, floating on our backs, searching for frogs, taking walks, and hopefully learning to swim!)

Lets Go To The Movies

As part of Grant's birthday extravaganza weekend we headed to the movie theater for Grant's first big sceen experience: on tap, what else, Toy Story 3! Grant was pretty excited, the only unfortunate thing was that the movie showing that worked with our schedule happened to be the 3D version so we had to keep making sure Grant was wearing his glasses because he would sit and watch for about 5 minutes then get antsy and want to take them off. The popcorn was gone before the opening credits and Grant proclamed it the "biggest TV I've ever seen"!

The Birthday Boy

I can hardly believe it but Grant turned 3 this weekend!

We had a great weekend surrounded by friends a family, Grant was very spoiled with love and lots of gifts and we are so thankful for it!

Grant has been into everything "Buzz and Woody" for a while now so with the new Toy Story movie just released I knew that would have to be our "mini-theme". Super lucky for us, most of the promotion stuff for Toy Story 3 is just a big 3 so with a little google image searching I was able to make our own decorations for next to nothing. Plus Rory found the PERFECT plate at the Disney Store so we were good to go!

(Geoff and I are both a little amazed that they would print these for us as they are blatant copyright infringements so if you happen to work for the legal department of pixar, please avert your eyes)

....more pictures coming soon....

Birthday Balloon Wreath

When I saw this posted on How Does She AND the Nap Time Crafts blog I knew it was something that I wanted to try, and with Grant's 3rd birthday coming this weekend I knew now was the time.

So off to Hobby Lobby it was to get a straw wreath, greenery pins and a lot of balloons. I knew I didn't want to cover the back of the wreath but since you'd see it through the storm door looking out I decided to spray paint it. Next, on to finger marring, urg, I mean, pinning in all those freakin' balloons!

How Does She used the big 12 inch balloons and you can see that its a bit floppy. Nap Time Crafts used the smaller balloons but they are much harder to find. I used a combination only because I started with the smaller and 2 things happened 1) my fingers were KILLING me and I thought any way to speed up the process would be good 2) I saw quickly that I was running out of the smaller balloons so I used some larger ones so they would last. I had to spread the work out over 3 different sessions a couple of days apart just because my fingers hurt so bad but I think it was worth it....

I AM IN LOVE WITH THE FINAL PRODUCT!

Geoff said it best when he said "you're going to use that over and over again, right?!?" heck yea! I love Grant to pieces but that project would have NOT been worth it for just one weekend, plus with as cute as it is I am glad we don't have long to wait before Geoff's special day.

Lindsay & Lila!

We had an extra special treat today! I woke up and got a wonderful text this morning that said "what are you up to this afternoon?" talk about an amazing surprise, Lindsay and Lila drove from Durham to spend the afternoon with Grant and I because both Brian and Geoff were going to be gone for the rest of the day.

Thanks to a sudden afternoon downpour we didn't do much other than sit in the living room and talk, but it was grown up talk (YAY) and oh-so-refreshing! Plus it was fun watching Grant deal with a baby -he was very good and wanted to share everything with her- and on our way to dinner we even got a sneak peek at what the backseat of the highlander will look like in a few short months!

What a refreshing and blessed day!

and To All a Goodnight!

...if you haven't had your "awwww" moment of the day today, this will certainly send you to bed on a good note!

Organic or Not?!?

Have you ever heard of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean 15? If not, you will probably be as delighted as I was a few weeks ago when I discovered this guide that exists to help make wise shopping decisions when I'm standing in the produce aisle trying to decide between the organic apple in one hand and the conventional apple in the other.

The Dirty Dozen
(Shown to contain the most pesticide residues; strive to buy organic)
1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes

The Clean 15
(Shown to be contaminated with far less pesticide residue; buying conventional is fine)
1. Onions
2. Avocados
3. Sweet corn
4. Pineapple
5. Mangos
6. Sweet potatoes
7. Asparagus
8. Kiwi
9. Cabbage
10. Eggplant
11. Cantaloupe
12. Watermelon
13. Grapefruit
14. Sweet Potato
15. Honeydew Melon

Maybe I'm a dork but I was so excited by this little find, the cheat sheet from the link above is now tucked in my wallet for when I need a supermarket peek. If you want to read all of the findings behind these lists check out this and this!